Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham to stand down

Channel 4 chief executive David Abraham is to leave the broadcaster after seven years. Photograph: Roger Askew/Rex/Shutterstock

David Abraham is to stand down as chief executive of Channel 4 after seven years.

The broadcaster accidentally revealed Abraham’s resignation when it prematurely tweeted a statement about his departure. The tweet was hastily deleted. However, Abraham’s exit has been the subject of much speculation since late last year.

Abraham, who has been a vociferous opponent of the government’s potential plans for a £1bn sell-off of the broadcaster, is understood to already have preparations in place to launch his own venture next year.

In the tweeted statement Charles Gurassa, the chairman of Channel 4, wishes Abraham well in his “future new enterprise”.

He added: “I will be undertaking a comprehensive recruitment process over the next months to ensure that Channel 4 continues to have outstanding leadership into the future.”

In the statement, Abraham – who is paid almost £900,000 a year – said: “I now look forward to working with the Channel 4 board to support and hand over to my successor and then begin the next phase of my life – back in the private sector where I hope to build an organisation that makes use of all that I learned from leading different kinds of innovative creative businesses.”

Abraham will leave with what he hopes is a huge programming feather in his cap after poaching Great British Bake Off, the biggest show on television, from the BBC in a £75m deal in September.

The first series will launch later this year, with Abraham saying he will leave Channel 4 “by the end of 2017”.

“After several successive years of positive momentum … I have decided that 2017 is the right year for me to hand over this important public job to my successor,” he said.

According to sources, Channel 4’s board originally planned to start the hunt for a successor months after last summer’s announcement by the government that it was backing off from a full privatisation.

However, a change in prime minister and reshuffle at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, which has been handling the review of the future of the state-owned, ad-funded broadcaster, reopened the question of full or part privatisation.

This uncertain future meant Abraham, whose seven years is on par with the average tenure of a Channel 4 chief executive over its 35-year history, stayed on to try to secure clarity over its future.

The culture department, led by Karen Bradley, has suggested that Channel 4 could move part, or all, of its operation out of London, with cities including Birmingham mooted as potential new headquarters.

“Channel 4 matters and I am confident that our stakeholders recognise the unique and significant contribution it will make to the future of UK broadcasting and to the creative industries more broadly,” said Abraham, in a statement from Channel 4 officially confirming his departure hours after the accidental tweet.

“We run a world-class public service broadcaster that offers viewers and producers the opportunity for so much richness, delight and value, across so many genres – and long may that continue.”

The broadcaster’s top executives, including Abraham, received near-maximum bonuses for 2015 (the most recent figures available) after increasing the flagship Channel 4’s audience share for the first time in a decade.

Gurassa said: “My colleagues on the board and I will be undertaking a comprehensive recruitment process over the next months to ensure that Channel 4 continues to have outstanding leadership into the future.”

Channel 4 had come to rely on the show, which in its heyday hauled in audiences of up to 8 million and made tens of millions of pounds in profits, but the reality series had become too toxic to fit in with its public service remit.

In 2015, the not-for-profit broadcaster spent a record £629m on all programming and content last year, with£455m of that on original content, commissioning hit shows such as Gogglebox and Black Mirror.